Mackie Conscious honours Cocoa Tea with cover version

Recording artiste Mackie Conscious has covered Cocoa Tea's 1989 single, ' First Date', in honouring the legendary reggae singer.

"I have always seen him as one of my idols, and so I took this as an opportunity to give a man his 'flowers' while he is alive. I am giving Cocoa Tea a chance to hear and enjoy his own song being covered with a new musical rendition," Mackie Conscious explained. This production was done by the Conscious Music Works label.

Once again, Mackie Conscious collaborated with Wayne Holness on a musical production similar to the recent song, Brighter Day, which he did as a collaboration with Luciano. Mackie Conscious explained his rationale for covering First Date.

"I was playing music as a bass player and singing in north coast hotels. This was the first Cocoa Tea song I liked and it was fun to sing to the audience. I remember the men used to like it, to help them out on their first date," he shared.

"I wanted to give a different feel to the song by modernising the kick drum, changing the saxophone solo, and overhauling different instrumentation using the same lyrics ... as an attempt to make his song like my own. I also wanted to make it popular today, as I don't think it was one of his most popular songs at the time," he explained.

The singer said that he has met Cocoa Tea on several occasions backstage, and found him to be humble and down-to-earth.

"He was one of the singers I tried hard to sound like, so I started following his music. I performed at a Reggae Sumfest one night where we shared the same stage. Some time ago, I was privileged to take a picture with him and I now keep it as a collector's item," he added.